A merica

Periodical Cotter

CLIFTON AVMS • CINCINNATI 20, OHIO

PAGE SEVENTEEN .

-

By MARTIN GOLDE

(Editor's Note:—What are the best Jewish books of the year?
What books by Jews, published in English, have elicited the most
comment? The author looks back on 5685 dispassionately but
scrutinizingly and indicates Jewish achievement in the English world

of lettere.)

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Rosh Ilashonah, the anniversary of the Creation, sounds
a call to creative, constructive work.
The call is urgent, imperious. Many duties will press ..
themselves upon us during the ensuing year, duties that
will strain our strength and test our fiber as they have
never been tried before. There is the obligation of makint
life safe for the tens of thousands of our people who are
facing ruin, starvation and death. There is the obligation
of continuing, aye, accelerating, the work so gloriously
and auspiciously begun in Erez Israel, the haven of refuge
for the storm-tossed soul of our people. There is the obli-
gation of making American Israel safe for Judaism and...
Jewish life.
Oar fate and our faith call for creative, constructive
work. May we heed this call.

IN CLASS

Outside is May.
And somewhere on a farm are apple-blossoms
Whitening the air with clouds of pleasing fragrance.
Long rows of orchard trees
Set neatly on a slope,
And in between the good black earth
Plowed up to greet a world new-born.

A lake
That's like a bit of sky
That's somehow come unplastered,
And dropped to earth turned upside down,
Laughs at itself in impish, gurgling laughter
And plays a skipping game.

There is a road
That leads across the long low valleys;
Straight to the sky it seems to rise
And then drops down behind a sudden clump
Of lady birch trees,
Forever calling you to come and follow on.

Green meadow patches
Dot the hills. Lie on their backs
And smile at God.

I CI

JEWISH CALENDAR

5686 — x1925

Saturday, September 19
First Day of New Year
Monday, September 21
Fast of Gedaliak
Monday, September 28 .
Yarn Kippur
Saturday, October 3 .
First Day of Tabernacles
Friday, October 9..
Hoshannah Rabbah
Saturday, October 10 ,
Shemini Attereth
Sunday, October 11
Sunchas Torah
Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan . . - Sunday-Monday, October 18.19
Rosh Chodmh Chesh•no . . Tuesday-Wednesday, November 17-18
First Day of Chanukah Saturday, December 12
Rosh Chodesh Tebeth . . . . Thurschy-Friday, December 17.111
Fast of Tibet
Sunday, December 27

5686 — 1926

Rosh Chodesh Shebat
Rosh Chodesh Mar
Fast of Esther
Purim
Rosh Chodesh Nissan
First Day of P
•
Rosh Chodesh lyar
Lag B'Omer
Rosh Chodesh Siva.
First Day of rentecost
Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
Fast of Timms..
Rosh Chodmh Al'
Fast of Ab
Rosh Chodesh EGO
First Day of New Year

I sit in class and half-asleep I listen.
The instructor's voice drones on and on,
Telling of book things, dry and old.
Would he like to be out on a farm?
I do not know.

And the Crosstown car groans by.

THE POLISH CEMETERY

The sunlight smiles upon the sunken graves,
And soft the wind's caresses like a mother's touch—
The wooden crosses stretch their weary arms
As if to listen to their sleeping dead,
are watching, have no fear."
Or whisper
The long, long rows of endless little graves,
Each with its still small form beneath the grass
Clutch at your heart with tender baby fingers
In pity for their mothers' empty arms.
The images of Holy saints, some fallen down,
Keep guard above the bodies that are dust:
The graves with shingles and a painted cross
Or else a gorgeous niarble with fair angels carved
Stand side by side as if to show the world
The glorious democracy of death.

Automobile Insurance

At Cost
The Belt Auto Indemnity Association

The raindrops tap on the window pane,
(Sleep, little sister, for dreams are good).
The night wind calls to enter, in vain,
(Sleep, little sister, for dreams are good).
Out in the world men struggle' to kill
If only to conquer another's will,
But here in my arms I hold you still.
(Sleep, little sister, for dreams are good).

Your soft eyes gleam in the firelight's glow,
(Sleep, little sister, for dreams are good).
And I cuddle you close, while I murmur low,
(Sleep, little sister, for dreams are good).
Out in the world there are sorrow and jest,
Laughter and tears from the worst and the best,
But here in my arms there is only rest.
(Sleep, little sister, for dreams are good).

Ten Years in Detroit.

"Bests" Insurance News says it is under good manage-
ment, has excellent loss paying record. P. L. and P. D.
on Ford cars $22.60. Other cars equally low rates,'

JOHN G. MONNEN

State Manager

3

512 HAMMOND BUILDING
Randolph 3741-42
000agovamtvgzeftWorotwoomsysioANWO MXIMSIGSWOmN

TO A SKELETON

How still you are!
Your bones are hard and stiff
And by their very naked whiteness
Draw my fearing eyes to look upon then,.

Bare and naked.
All your flesh is gone—
Where did you come from and where did you go?
What happened to your soul?

A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU!

BURDA BROS.

Were you ever young like me?
Did you like life, too?
Did the warm sunshine ever kiss your hair

In April time?

Did you ever wonder why you lived
And want to know—just things?
Was the universe ever so wide
That it fairly strangled you with the colossal bigness?

Did someone care when
You became a skeleton,
A mass of bones strung on a wire
For students' ruthless hands to touch?

I shut my eyes and try to think what death is like,
And wonder if I'll ever be like you.
Will my flesh ever fall away,
And leave me nothing but my bones?

I

`New Year Greetings With Best Wishes

944 WEST WARREN AVE.

If I were you,
Ah, sweet, if I were you,
1 know the very thing I'd like to do;
I'd fall asleep at night to dream of you—
you that I am—all the dark hours through.
The
That's what I'd do,
If I were you.

—

HENRY F. HURLEY, Electrician

WIRING AND REPAIRING

TO THE JEWISH
COMMUNITY
OF
DETROIT

Anna and I went Maying
Away from the tin-pan town,
Out where the green tree shadows
Laugh at last autumn's brown;
Where the path is soft and mucky
And the earth sinks 'neath your load,
And a pointed stick for a pilgrim's staff
Goes tapping the good rough road.
There is smell of the new things budding,
There are tunes in the tree tops hung,
Envy us, heart-ease searchers,
For Anna and I are young!

in

For Demonstration Call Glendale 0523

OFFICE: 4820 BANGOR AVENUE
YARD: COR. HANCOCK AND SCOTTEN
WALNUT 0638 .

ANNA AND I MAYING

JERUSALEM.—(J. T. A.)—Jew.!
ish immigration to Palestine continued
the month of August. Three thou-
sand six hundred and ninety-six im-
migrants landed in August, according
to figures made known here.

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GENERAL MASON CONTRACTORS

Because today is April—
Life and youth and love.

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Raising - Shoring

And then I laugh
altar,
And I burn three candles high with flames before an

ness.
Copyright 1925 by Seven Arts
Feature Syndicate.

EGOTISM

_

...„
Saturday, January,16
Sunday-Monday, February 14.10.
Saturday, February. 27
Sunday-Monday, February 28.March.)
Tuesday, March
Tuesday, Merck 30
Wednesday-Thursday, April 14.15
Sunday, May 2 .•.
Friday, May 14 ,
Wednesday, May 19
Salurday•Sunday, June 12.13
Tuesday, June 29 ,.
Monday, July 12
Tuesday, July 20
Tuesd•y•Wednesd•y, August 10.11
Thursday, September 9.

A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU!'

LULLABY

GREETINGS OF THE SEASON

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By RABBI A. M. HERSHMAN

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Jobbing and Repair Work a Specialty

A CALL FOR CONSTRUCTIVE WORK

his eminence in the political world
enabled him to publish these works.
eks a literateur, Trotzky is an able,
philosopher. His style, as judged by 1
Miss Hattie Morris, a local poet whose work is beginning to he recog-
the English rendition, contains no par.!
ticular merit nor brilliance. Ile is,1 nixed, has submitted a number of poems to The Detroit Jewish Chronicle
was born in Honor, a small'
however, logical and simple. which are herewith printed. Miss Morris, who
Michigan town, 25 years ago, has resided in Detroit far 10 years, and was,
The most important critical works
of the year written by Jews are Paul graduated from Central high Selvxd. She attended City College for two
Rosenfeld's "Men Seen" and George" years and later the University of Michigan. Her school years were cur-
S. liellman's "Washington Irving."' tailed by a severe illness. The poems follow:
The former who has been referred 01
as the second Van Wyck Brooks esti-
mates the worth and future of 211
mates
contemporary literary figures. In es- 1
I sit in class
says which constitute remarkable
And half-asleep I listen;
pieces of literature in themselves, 110-1
The instructor's voice drones on and on,
simile has passed judgment upon the
Filling the air with pleasing platitudes
most prominent modernists writing'
And clouds of sage remarks
today. His style, labeled as obscur-1
That
some day may be nice to know.
antist, does not seem adapted fur liter-

Questions that are ordinarily re- with their milieu. Ilecht and Golding
stricted to the domain of religion have I adequately represent two strains in
in uncomfortable habit of poking their Jewish life. The one is urged to for-
asistencies into other realms. The get t he badge of an outcast pepole
i mestion, for example, as to whether by an absorption in a larger environ-
r attempts to seek the
Jews constitute a race or religion, ment th e othe
t h e
the properly belonging almost solution of his Jewish fate within his
entirely to anthropology, is usually own group, but finds the attempt un-
dogmatically settled by the divergent successful. Certainly, Ilecht and Gold- arycriticism, however. Lucid,
opinions of the theologians. For the ing represent the nth degree of Jew- straightforward, uncompromising, un-
purposes of considering what Jews ish civilization. The day may come ambiguous evaluation of men and
have done and how they have been when both such types will conic hack works are replaced by mellifluous, res-
concerned in the literature, published to active Judaism in a mystic eni- onant, musical words. Although Ro-
in English, that has poured onto the bracement of a long-sought anodyne. senfeld at one time declared that his
shelves in the past year, it would he They may find in a Judaism integ- career as a musical critic was due to•
more convenient for one's sense of fit- rated by modernity a retesting view- that field's potentialities for money-I
nem to subscribe to the theory that point with which to scan the passing making, it can readily be seen that
Jews constitute a race. To assume show.
his literary style has been influenced:
that their only bond is religion is to
Still speaking of the better type of by his knowledge of and intimacy witt4l
set precedent for a list of publications literature,
DeCasseres music. It may he interesting to note
Benjamin
which enterprising booksellers may "Mirrors of New York" and hlaxwell that Rosenfeld has expressed a per-
to print: "The Mohammedans Bodenheim's "Replenishing Jessica" sonal distaste for at least unappreci-
See fit
in Literature of 1925," The Taoists are pleasant contributions to the all. ation of Ben Hecht and Maxwell Bo-
in Literature of 1925," The Reform too-meager stock of good reading. The denheim. In his "Men Seen," he
Jews in Literature of 1925, "The former purports to he an expose of passes judgment upon Waldo Frank,
Orthodox Jews in Literature of 1926;' . Philistinism and other infirmities, but James Oppenheim, Herbert J. Selig-
"The Baptists in Literature of 1925.
its "Times Square Playboy" type of mann and Jacob Wassermann, among
It would be rare perseverance for the English and viewpoint are not as re- others.
A hook that has met with warm-
cataloguers to discover just what is trashing as the more sophisticated bits
the private faith of all those who have of satire on life of the common people hearted welcome among American
It is
Jews
is. strange enough, a history of
written during that season.
of the states, Carl Van Vechten's, for
not impossible to foresee the many example. Bodenheim's "Replenishing Jews which Lewis Browne, the au-
lawsuits that may arise from a pub- Jessica" represents the third of that thor, has called "Stranger Than Fic-
lisher's confusion of a pious Mormon poet's stages in his attempt to find tion." Perhaps it should not he cred-
with a suspect Methodist.
stature as a novelist. Unsatisfied ited to a dullness to values that per-
mits such volumes to he enthused over.
Broadening one's field to the bond with himself, he can scarcely find ne r•
It ought, perhaps, to he kept in mind
d race, one discovers that Jews have faction
i in others. It is only to he
not particularly distinguished them- regretted that the public hue and cry that the histories of the Jews that
have thus far been written have been
selves in the past year. They have raised over certain unimportant ele-
ponderous, ill-written tomes, penned
written as much inconsequent mate- mints of his book should detract the
purely for scholars or else for Sun-
rial, proportionately, as their neigh- attention from his g . enius as a world-
day-school children. Thus far theie
lairs. They, along with their coun- artist. Considered strictly on its mer-
has been no blending of history and
trymen, have failed to produce much its, in relation to the other novels that
style. And consequently Browne's at-
uniquely outstanding literature.. The have been written, "Replenishing Jes-
tempt at the same task received the
Jews, as a whole, however, are be- sica" easily ranks as the best prose
undeserved acclaim which American
coming more than ever subjects for written by a poet during the year.
Jews were willing to give any popu-
dramatists and novelists and even
G . B. Stern piques one's Patric
larly written history of their race.
Explanations in such cases
Since her marriage' to But surely, good writing need not sac-
poets.
q
constitute a branch of dogmatics. Per. eti uette.
Geo ffrey Holdsworth, the English rifice history; history is a precarious
haps the Jew as such is becoming aed
w
enough truth even when well record-
to
rare phenomenon and the chroniclers journf only ew s-by-religion w
ed. "Stranger Than Fiction" is re-
plete with the most apparent betrayals
grave for all time the features, eharac- be admitted to the category of Jews
ice
Its generalizations are
of history.
teristics and other identifications f o writing during the year. But si
one of the strongest indictments
this fast vanishing species of man- we have chosen the more sparious
men-
against its veracity. A book must
kind Then again, the advocates of realms of Jews-by-race, we must
the Committee for Good Will between tion her "Matriarch" and "Thunder- deal with history or it must treat of
storm." The only point of resemblance romance. It cannot properly be' both.
of If Browne had acknowledged the fact
Jew and Gentile may assert that the
Jew is becoming a more intelligible between the two is a light touch
individual under their tutelage. The amused irony. "Matriarch," h, that he was merely attempting to
has the proportions of a distinguished write an historical nominee, all might
Jew has been dissected and analyzed
treatment
. For breadth
and it have been well, but he determinedly
before his non-Jewish friends and he novel
" short history of
has been shown to be as human as deserves classifications as one of the sets out to indite
they, with their blessings and their most substantial books of the season. the Jew's from earliest times to the
present
day."
His
arrogance,
in view
handicaps. The non-Jewish novelist Treating of the cosmopolitan affairs
of his non-historical training, is amaz• I
thus begins to feel that he is coming of a many-branched family, Miss
Stern had ample opportunity to in. ing.
into contact with rich storehouses of dude much interesting psychology on
Another history of the Jews writ-
ntal ten during the year was "My Por-
virgin material. Or, on the other
hand, the real explanation for the the habits and natures of Contine
tion,"
by Rebekah Kohut. This auto-
gradual emergence of the Jew into Jews. Her portrait of the younger
non-Jewish literature, especially in the generation provides an excellent pic- biography is in part a record of Jew-
ish
life
in America during the last
United States, may he accredited to tore of what assimilation or pseudo-
.10 years. Primarily, it limns the de-
the general recognition which the Jew adaptation may do to a family whoa
velopment
of the Jewish woman, the
has attained. Thus far he has been strength has inhered in
Jewish-
be re..
only
can its
t u e
change of her position and attitude
engaged in digging for existence, sat- ness• "Thunderstorm"
novel.
Its from the late eighties and nineties to
billed with any scraps and crumbs, (erred to as a summer
but now he is becoming a force in frailty and lightness can only recom- he present time.Although Mrs.
tics—and mend for it a brief pastime; its humor Kohut cannot be but somewhat preju.
society, in economics, in politics—and
diced, her volume is one of the most
more important—in art and literature. and occasional pathos must not be
reliable contemporary referunces to
The great opportunity which non-Jew• subjected to the rigid criteria by
the growth and development of con -
ish scholars and authors have of meet- which adult novels ar juPed.
Leon Trotzky seems to be the most ',creative and reform Judaism in
•
ing numerous Jewish fellow-workers
in similar fields was unprecedented discussed and discussing personality f " Amen( a.
The Letters of Rosa Luxemburg'
until the war, generally speaking. of the year Ile is the subject o
and "The Bolshevik Myth" by Alex-
There are two books of the year excellent biography by Max Eastman;
ander Berkman are the finest pieces
1925 which hold an almost equal right while he in turn evaluates the person-
of writing on and by Jewish interna-
to be termed the best hook of the year. silty and achievements of Nikolai
tional revolutionaries that have ap-
One is Ben llecht's "Humpty Dump- "Lenin." In addition, there have been
peared in a long time. Whatever be
the other is Louis Gelding's "Day published "Problems of I.ife," a res-
one's point of view on Berkman's for-
of Atonement." Both are vehement unie of the Russian leadephilosophy
mer activity and on Rosa's life of
protests, the former against society in of living, and "I.iterature and R
wo of Trotsk's books are political agitation, it must be admit-
daism lution."
general the latter against Ju T
ted that both of them have well dis-
in particular. Both are documents of probably composed of material which played the Jewish sense of interna -
two Jewish souls out of alignment he has been saving for some time; tional justice, and have contributed
most generously to the cause of the
brotherhood of man.
There has been a great deal of in-
consequent writing during the past
year, both on and by Jews, but none
of it deserves mention. There has
also been a proportion of books which
though not well-heralded and much-
acclaimed merits credit here either for
scholarliness or interest. Among these
Herman Berstein's "Celebrities of Our
Time" deserves first rank. Alexander
1Voolcott's "Story of Irving Berlin,"
though a repetition of the success
story, manages to sneak in a great
deal of unusual human interest.
As one considers that literature is
rather fine art, and that success in
t a the
game is somewhat unusual, the
it
!, hooks that Jews have turned out this
year are not causes for shamefaced-

SPROAT STREET

-

Some Poems of Hattie Morris

Literary Review of 5685

59

-

FOUR-FIFTHS LESS
JEWS ENTERED U. S.

population of the United States 12,100
.
for the fiscal year 1925
An examination of the figures of

the Bureau of Immigration shows that
the Jewish immigration has adjusted
itself to the new quota law. The
number of Jews who entered this'
country, originating in Eastern
T.
A.)
WASIIINGTON, D. G.— (.1 .
Europe has shrunk to a very low fig-
:—Immigration of Jews to the United
ure and the majority of Jews who
'States during 1925 diminished to one-
entered, came, most probably, from
previous
year,
ac-
fifth of that of the
eastern Europe. According to the fig-
cording to statistics of the Bureau of
ures, 4,857 immigrants were born in
Immigration of the United States De-
Poland. Of these 3,178 are Poles.
partment of Labor made known here.
This makes the maximum of Jews who
the
statistics
of
the
According to
entered from Poland 679. Of the
Labor Department, in the fiscal year
2,043 immigrants entering this coon.'
1921, 49,989 Hebrews -.immigrated.
try from Russia, 1,225 are Russian
For the fiscal year 1925 ending June
by race. The greatest possible num.!
30, 10,292 immigrants and 2,945 non-
ber of Jews from Russia would there-i
immigrant Hebrews entered, making a
be 818. During the fiscal year !
I total of 13,237. During the year 1924,
1925, 1,137 Hebrews were debarred
, 260 Hebrews emigrated from the
compared
with 1,754 in 1924. The
' 1 , .. ■ ,....1 St a tes and during the fiscal as
emigrated and 846 figures also show that Jews
' year 1945,
the eighth place In the number enter-,I .
non-immigrant left the country. This
ing and the number debarred.
!makes the total increase in the Jewish

A

A

Happy

and

Prosper-

ous

Happy

and

Prosper-

ous

New

New

Year

Year

Figures Published by Department of
Labor for Palestine.

I

ni

DR. FRANK B.

BRODERICK

COUNCILMAN

